This invention relates to the manufacture of rapidly quenched ribbons by projecting a liquid jet of metal or alloy onto a cooled belt moving at high speed, and especially to a technique for contacting the jet with the belt in a reduced pressure atmosphere.
French patent application No. 80 15 918 filed on July 18, 1980 describes an apparatus comprising a vacuum chamber through which a moving belt passes. A crucible having an ejection orifice for the liquid jet and a high frequency induction heater winding for the crucible are disposed such that they extend into the chamber.
Such a structure requires the production and maintenance of vacuum sealed joints at the points of penetration of the crucible and winding through the wall of the chamber. This structure also requires that the chamber become more voluminous and complex as the crucible capacity increases, since in such case greater care must be taken to seal the chamber and maintain the crucible in place (in order to balance the forces exerted on the joint by atmospheric pressure), as well as the insulation and cooling means.